Fundraising campaign for Israeli Defence Forces soldier earns charity official warning
Melanie May | 10 January 2025 | News
The Charity Commission issued the official warning to Chabad Lubavitch Centres North East London and Essex Limited after finding the trustees had acted outside the charity’s purposes and failed to safeguard its best interests and its reputation.
Chabad Lubavitch Centres North East London and Essex Limited’s purposes are to advance the orthodox Jewish religion, advance orthodox Jewish education, and relieve poverty and sickness.
However, in October 2023, the charity set up a fundraising page to raise funds for a soldier of the IDF stationed in northern Israel. This was removed in January 2024, after having raised around £2,280. £937 of this was sent directly to an individual soldier with the trustees unable to account for how those funds were spent. The rest was spent on non-lethal military equipment purchased by the trustees and sent to the same soldier in Israel.
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180 complaints
The Charity Commission opened a regulatory compliance case into the charity in December 2023 and engaged with its trustees after receiving over 180 complaints about the activities.
The Commission found the fundraising activity to be outside the charity’s purposes, and not capable of being charitable. It also found that the trustees had failed to act in the best interests of the charity and its reputation, judging this to be misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of charity, and a breach of trust.
Providing aid or military supplies to foreign armed forces, & the law
The Commission says that while charities with appropriate purposes can lawfully raise funds to promote the efficiency of the UK armed forces, providing aid or military supplies to any foreign armed force is not a charitable purpose, and as such charities cannot legally undertake this activity.
The official warning imposes a number of requirements on the charity’s trustees to remedy the misconduct and/or mismanagement.
Helen Earner, Director for Regulatory Services at the Charity Commission said:
“It is not lawful, or acceptable, for a charity to raise funds to support a soldier of a foreign military.
“Our Official Warning requires the charity to set things right and is a clear message to other charities to stay true to their established purposes.
“Any failure by the charity to implement the requirements in the Official Warning may lead to further regulatory action.”
Middle East conflict
Since October 2023, the Commission has opened over 200 regulatory cases relating to the escalating conflict in the Middle East, involving charities with different positions on the conflict, and has made over 40 referrals to the police.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.